"I wanted to get horns on a couple of the tunes," Steve explains, "and we're trying to feature some different people on our upcoming full length, FeedingTime. We got the idea that maybe we could go down to New Orleans and get one of the brass bands down there to help us. I lived in New Orleans for a while and came to love Rebirth and the other brass bands down there -- the first live gig I ever played was in a trio in New Orleans, and we opened for Rebirth!

"I started looking into logistics," he goes on, "and realized that Dirty Dozen was actually going to be in Denver playing with Allen Toissant at the Botantic Gardens, and so I thought it could be perfect if they could come into the studio for a few hours while they were in town and maybe do a guest appearance with us at the Gothic on that same night."

So Steve did what any enterprising musician would do: he contacted the group's agent and explained the project, invited them to sit with the band and then hit him up with the old, "Hey, what are the chances?"

"I definitely wasn't sure I'd ever hear back," Steve admits, "but sure enough a few days later, he said he had talked to Dirty Dozen, and they were interested in recording but didn't know if they could make The Gothic appearance because of their show with Allen Toissant at the Botantic Gardens. He told me to send the track to see if it was a good fit."

That response was incentive enough for Steve and his FaceMan cohorts to burn the midnight oil at Uneven on Monday and send off the charts and rough mixes yesterday morning. Shortly after he sent the files off, Steve received confirmation from the agent. All five members of the Dirty Dozen are on board and slated to join FaceMan in the studio day after tomorrow.

"Gonna be a party," Steve declares. "We're gonna cook up some homemade jambalaya and treat them real good. I'm hoping if the food is good enough we can talk them into stopping by The Gothic. Crossing fingers."